Part 3: (Game Mechanics) What do all these numbers do?

Before we go, though, some exposition of a different type! That's right, it's…

Let's Talk About Game Mechanics!
Episode the First: What do all these numbers do?

A very warm welcome to anyone who's here from either of the links in the "second" update; this post should have opened in a new window or tab, so when you're done you can close it and be right back where you left off.

Fun fact: There are *five* other Fire Emblem Let's Plays in progress at time of writing (the fourth and fifth opened during writing!), of which four are informative. In addition, the meaning and functions of these numbers are often identical across games, with only Weight and Constitution being in any way different. That means that, statistically speaking, you definitely already know the entire contents of this post. This will not stop me.

Earlier, we saw some screens with some numbers on them. It's time to pick 'em apart!

Fire Emblem is all about the numbers. All of the battle mechanics are worked out above board, and all of the enemy's numbers are readily available. With proper understanding of the mechanics, you can work out the facts and percentages for any matchup between any of the units on the map without ever having to move next to them "just to see what the numbers look like". Numbers are everything. With that in mind, this post will be a guide to the numbers that govern combat. It'll also make a handy reference, both for following along with the LP, and for playing the game yourself!



Let's pick through Micaiah's character sheet and see what it has to tell us.

Direct your attention first to the left side of the top of the screen. Underneath the unit's name is their Class; there are many classes, and each one will get its explanation as it comes up in the LP, don't you worry. Underneath that you'll see the unit's Level (Lv) and Experience (Exp). Units gain experience for doing stuff; the most experience comes from attacking and getting kills, though units also gain experience from healing and such - not as much, though. How much experience is given for a kill depends on the unit's current level and the victim's. Tougher challenge, better reward. This is why it's important to regularly involve all units you intend to properly use, lest they fall behind. 100 EXP grants a level. A unit can have up to 20 levels. When they pass Lv 20, they are promoted into a new and better class; the specifics of this will be covered when this actually happens.

Underneath all that is the unit's Hit Points (HP) and their Ability Scores. You can think of these as a unit's Primary Attributes. If you pay attention to only one part of a character sheet, make it this one.

HP is of course the unit's health. Pretty self explanatory. Of course, there is one very important caveat; death in Fire Emblem is permanent. No exceptions. If a unit reaches zero HP, they're gone and you will never get to use them again. If a main character dies, it's instant Game Over. A few characters, upon running out of HP, will merely "retreat" so they can still participate in cutscenes and dialog, but they're still considered dead by the game.

Strength (Str) represents… well, a unit's strength. It affects their ability to inflict damage with physical weapons. It also affects a unit's ability to wield heavier weapons - and lest anyone forget, magical tomes have weight too! Strength is therefore not completely trivial to magic users.

Magic (Mag) represents magical ability. It affects the damage a unit can deal with magic tomes and enhances the abilities of staves (which we have yet to encounter). Magic is of far less use to physical classes is than strength is to magic classes, but there are a few things… all in good time.

Skill is the unit's ability to actually land hits and get criticals, with both weapons and magic. Higher skill means higher accuracy. Stronger weapons are typically less accurate and require a higher Skill stat to effectively use. Classes that use weapons that are hard to aim (such as archers) require high Skill to be effective.

Speed (Sp) affects a unit's ability to land multiple hits in a single attack, and also aids their evasion rate in combat. Speed is important to all classes, so much so that missing out on too much is sufficient grounds for benching an otherwise capable unit for the rest of the game.

Luck (Lck) affects a unit's accuracy and evasion, and will impact their opponents' ability to land critical hits. Luck isn't crucial to any of these, but it's always nice to have.

Defense (Def) and Resistance (Res) mitigate damage from physical and magical attacks, respectively. A point in either represents a point less damage taken per hit. All frontline classes need good Defense and at least some Resistance.



At the top right of the screen, you will observe yet more numbers! These have no official collective name, so let's call them Secondary Attributes. They are derived from a unit's ability scores and the attributes of that unit's equipped weapon, and they are the numbers that dictate the outcome of combat.

Atk: Sum of the power of a unit's equipped weapon and either their strength or magic, as appropriate. Compared with opponents' defense or resistance, as appropriate, to determine the damage they deal with a single strike.

AS: Unit's attack speed. If a unit's AS exceeds their opponent's by 4 or more, they can attack that opponent twice in a single round. A unit's AS will be equal to their speed unless their equipped weapon's weight is higher than their strength, in which case their AS will be lowered by the difference.

Hit: The unit's base accuracy, a function of their equipped weapon's hit rate and their skill and luck stats (Weapon Hit% + Skill*2 + Luck). Compared to opponents' avoid rate to determine their chance to hit in combat (Hit - Enemy Avo = % chance to hit).

Avo: Avoid rate. A function of the unit's attack speed (not their speed stat) and their luck (AS*2 + Luck). Affects opponents' chances to hit in combat.

Crit: Percentage chance to score a critical hit. A function of a unit's skill stat, and their equipped weapon's crit rate (Weapon Crit% + Skill/2). Compared to opponents' dodge rate in combat (Crit - Enemy Ddg = % chance to crit).

Ddg: (Critical) Dodge rate. Essentially, equal to a unit's luck. Affects opponents' chance to land critical hits in combat.

(Hit and Avoid fluctuate slightly according to biorhythms, and Atk, Def, Hit, Avo and Crit can be boosted by supports. Crit can be directly boosted by skills. The values shown in the character sheet are inclusive of these factors. A few other exceptional factors can influence Hit.)

Rng: Attack range; determined by equipped weapon. This will, of course, be 1 for melee weapons, 2 for bows, and 1-2 for spells and crossbows. A few weapons exist that defy these conventions.

Effect: Combat effectiveness bonus. Determined entirely by equipped weapon. Allows a character to deal significantly increased damage to enemies of the specified type.



Phew! And now, the second screen; don't worry, there much less stuff here.



Under "Personal Data", you'll find the following:

Constitution (Cn): Unit's build, higher meaning larger. Different for every character and usually increases upon class change. Determines the units ability to Shove or Rescue.

Weight (Wt): Unit's weight, determining the unit's capacity to be Shoved or Rescued. Doesn't change. Unique to each character.

Move: The number of squares a unit can move in a single turn. Determined by class.

Affinity (Aff): This affects what benefits a unit gives and gains from forming a support relationship with another unit. Each affinity has a different set of bonuses; the overall bonus for a given support is simply the sum of both partners' bonuses, multiplied by the strength of the bond. Each character has their own affinity that cannot be changed. We'll discuss supports in more detail in a future update.

Race: Denotes the unit as either a Beorc or a Laguz. What are Beorc and Laguz? Well… we'll get to that later. Suffice it to say that you can't change a character's race.

Travel (Trv): Name of the unit this unit is carrying, if any.

Condition (Cd): Unit's condition (status ailments), if any.

Lastly, on the right hand side of this screen are the unit's Weapon Levels, which determine what weapons they can use, and how good they are at using them. Each weapon has a rank requirement a unit must meet before they are allowed to wield it; units can increase their rank with a given weapon type by repeatedly using weapons of that type in combat. Every unit is able to equip at least one variety of weapon, as determined by class. Actual starting ranks in each category are different for each character.

Our very final concern is the Skills screen:



The Skills section is pretty self explanatory; it lists all the skills a unit has equipped and shows how many of the unit's available skill points are currently being used.

Unlike in Path of Radiance, where skills could be removed but would be lost forever, in Radiant Dawn, you can assign, remove and reassign skills freely. it used to be the case that, because of the permanence of setting new skills on a character, players would frequently wallow in indecision and just hoard skills, never to use them. This is no longer the case!

On the right side of the screen is the Support section. Here can be found a summary of all the bonuses a unit is getting from their support. Again, Supports are their own little thing that we'll discuss later, there's nothing to say for now.

Wow! That was a lot of technical discussion. Reiterating: Fire Emblem is all about the numbers, and feeling your way through will only get you so far. Fortunately, there's a lot of scope for learning as you go, and the game is pretty upfront about what numbers are important for what things, so you can pick it up quite quickly.

If you're new to this, and all these numbers are a tad too much, don't worry! We'll be re-examining all of this throughout the LP, if and when appropriate. And this post will always be here.